Money Talks and Sins Balk
by Derailed
Summary: There is a new spider superhero on the rooftops of New York. The new manager of the Daily Bugle wants to meet and know who it is, as well as start a team that uses the Daily Bugle as a Headquarters. When a new villainous organization appears, a fight between Money and Sins breaks out.
1. Chapter 1

With Spider-Man out of action, Scarlet Spider (Ben Riley) dead and Scarlet Spider (Kaine Parker) living in Huston, Texas; there was no-one to fill the role of Scarlet Spider or Spider-Man.

While Flash Thompson had become Venom and filled that roll, most of the New Yorkers were saying it wasn't the same. Spider-Man was the first arachnid hero and Venom the first anti-hero/villain/hero.

That soon changed. Two weeks passed uneventfully, but then strange things began happening. One night, several crooks were found webbed up and hung from lampposts. Another night, Taskmaster, who was out causing trouble, mysteriously disappeared and was found outside of one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Headquarters, webbed up. Two nights later, several Assassins were found in a trash bin, which had the lid webbed shut.

Soon, talk began. Some said that Spider-Man had returned, some speculated that there was a new Arachnid superhero, some were saying that there was a new scarlet spider and some were wondering if there was an Arachnid Mutant.

This had caught the attention of the new owner of the Daily Bugle, Jackson Brydgestone. He wanted to meet this mysterious person and possibly have him or her work as one of the "Buglers"-A small team of ten superheroes and super villains who've changed their ways.

"I'm closing up early today," he told his employees as he went around to inspect their work. "I have some private things to take care of here, so go home and expect a paycheck for the five hours your not working."

The men and women thanked him and left. Once everyone was gone home, including the janitors, he got at the phone in his back office, where there were no windows. He had one number that he wanted to use and for the reason of finding this mysterious spider.

He dialed and waited through one ring before he heard a voice.

"Who is this," it asked

"Jackson Brydgestone," Jackson said. "I'm looking for American Panther."

"Speaking," the other voice said.

"Can you come to the Bugle?" Jackson asked.

"Why?" American Panther demanded.

"I have a job and an offer to propose, which I detest proposing and giving you over the phone, as there is no telling who is listening in," Jackson said.

"I feel the same way," American Panther said. "What time is convenient for you?"

"I was going to ask you what time is convenient for you?" Jackson said.

"I can be there in thirty minutes," American Panther said. "Work for you?"

"Indeed," Jackson said. "See you in thirty minutes."

"Same here," American Panther said.

Both rang off at the same time. American Panther chuckled.

"This smells like a golden career opportunity," he mused.

Jackson was pleased with his idea. If this worked, then he hit gold, but this plan had many problems that he didn't want to explore as they were not as many as the good points.

Thirty minutes later, American Panther showed up.

He was wearing a dark blue suit with red white stripes and white stars on the elbow and knee pads as well as one on the forehead and one on each of the shoulders. He wears dark blue combat boots, a knife sheath on his right leg, on his left leg was a pocket with a back up weapon, around his waist was an utility bed, on his shoulders are shoulder holsters for pistols, he had two elbow pads and knee pads, he had a bracelet around each wrist, a full face mask with two "ears" sticking up.

He stood up straight and moved quickly. As Jackson lead American Panther to the back office, he made note that this superhero or super villain didn't draw that much attention to himself.

Once the door was shut, American Panther walked to the desk.

"What is the job?" he asked Jackson.

"I want you to find this new spider character," Jackson said. "The offer that I have is that you work here for me, as a leader of a team that I'm creating. After all, I am willing to pay you for your services here."

American Panther thought about it for half an hour. Once he had finished his thoughts, he turned to Jackson.

"How much would you pay for me to work for you?" American Panther asked.

"Pay is dependant on how much you think is fair," Jackson said. "Besides, I'm thinking of making a team of superheroes, so you can get some bonuses from being team leader. You can determine how much I pay the team, if you think that's fair."

American Panther shook his head and looked at Jackson.

"I think that payment to me and the team members should be payments to a emergency funds, so if anyone needs to get some information, we have the necessary paper oil to lubricate the vocal cords," American Panther said.

"Bribing for information?" Jackson said. "Seems odd."

"People are more willing to give you vital information for money," he said.

Jackson smiled. "Good idea. Why don't you look for this spider then."

American Panther agreed and left.

"This will hopefully work out for the best," Jackson muttered as he cleaned up some loose papers and notes.


	2. Chapter 2

American Panther was out, looking for this mysterious spider. After all, he himself was curious and wanted to get his answers.

"If this works, then there will be a new hero on this new team," he mused.

Meanwhile, a figure was jumping from rooftop to rooftop. The figure wore a red spider style spandex suit, the upper torso was black, with the rest of the suit including a full face mask was all scarlet red. The eye pieces were white with black trim around them. On the chest was a scarlet red spider.

The figure was on a rooftop, looking at American Panther, who was looking through binoculars.

"That fool must want me for something nefarious," the figure said.

With that, the figure jumped down and landed behind American Panther.

"Well, well, well, what do you want?" the figure demanded.

American Panther spun around and looked the figure up and down, putting all the details into a filing cabinet in his brain.

"You," he said. "An acquaintance of mine wants to meet you."

The figure chuckled, "meet me? That's rich."

American Panther was somewhat surprised.

"You're a female," he said.

"Got a problem with that?" she demanded.

"Not at all," American Panther said. "It seems to be a little odd though. I would have thought that the new Spider based superhero would be a male. This will make a nice change."

The spider superhero chuckled. "That's a compliment, and you know it."

American Panther nodded, then asked, "What or who are you?"

"I am the Scarlet Spyder," she said.

American Panther nodded. "My acquaintance had a hunch that you'd be the Scarlet Spider, since there hasn't been anyone to lay claim to the name of Spider-Man."

Scarlet Spyder was confused.

"Meaning?" she asked.

"Normally, there would be at least five, if not many hundreds of Looney Tunes all calling themselves Spider-Man," he told her.

Scarlet Spyder was sympathetic towards American Panther's words. After all, dealing with loonies was always stressful.

"Anyway," American Panther said. "I'm to take you to the Bugle for a meeting. How do you want to do this? The easy way or the hard way?"

"The easy way?" Scarlet Spyder asked.

"I simply lead you there and we talk with my acquaintance," he told her.

"I take it the hard way is that you tie me up and carry me off to the building?" Scarlet Spyder said.

American Panther nodded. "Which is it?" he asked.

"The easy way," Scarlet Spyder said.

American Panther said that it seemed the best course of action, as that way, no civilians got hurt and there was no loss of blood.

"I besides want to see if there is something good after this meeting," Scarlet Spyder said as they headed to the Bugle.

"There is," American Panther said in reply.

That piqued Scarlet Spyder's curiosity. What could this "something good" be? All she could do was wait until she got to the Bugle to find this out.

The trip was uneventful. After twenty minutes of travel, they arrived at the Bugle and after American Panther opened the door and let themselves both in. American Panther led Scarlet Spyder to the back office, where Jackson was sitting down.

He jumped up and shook hands with Scarlet Spyder's hand and after offering her a chair, he began to talk with her.

"If you don't mind me asking you, what is your superhero name?" the head of Bugle asked.

"Scarlet Spyder. Last name spelled S-p-y-d-e-r," she said.

Once Jackson had that written down, he asked her other questions. As she answered them, he wrote down the answers. Any good journalist always keeps his questions written down and writes the answers underneath the question to make sure everything was covered.

Once he was finished asking her the questions that every journalist should ask, he laid the proposition of her becoming a member of the team he was creating.

"So, you want me to work as a superhero here for you, so you can get some exclusives?" she asked.

"The first part is correct, but I don't need any exclusives," Jackson said. "I can get my men out there for exclusives. I just want you to help clean up New York."

"It seems tempting," Scarlet Spyder said.

"After all, if you do join," he told her. "You do have a headquarters and team members."

Scarlet Spyder thought about it for a good four hours, before saying that she would join the team.

After Jackson had left, Scarlet Spyder turned to American Panther and the two walked towards each other.

"I never thought that this would happen to us, but I think we have both found our love," she told him.

American Panther nodded, however he was somewhat quizzical.

"Don't you think that forming a loving relation this early is a bad thing?" he asked.

Scarlet Spyder looked at him.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, what if we find better people to be with, then we'd end up holding grudges against each other and that would demoralize the team," he replied.

Scarlet Spyder laughed.

"You've always been the one that I have wanted for one reason, I always thought you had a cool design and look to be very strong as well as determined and willing to protect your friends and allies, as well as a family if we were to start one."

Normally, American Panther would never have any reactions to anything what-so-ever, but that made him widen his eyes and even shake his head.

"So, no matter what, it's a green light for you?" he asked. Scarlet Spyder nodded.

"It is a green light on my end," she said.

American Panther decided that he did love her and if they had a family, then it would give him the chance to be the protective father figure that Scarlet Spyder said that she noticed from him.

After their discussion about the tender affairs, they both spent the remaining time talking about their plans to find new members and finish the team.

They soon had a list of possible candidates.

Taskmaster

Daredevil

Bengal

White Dragon

Iron Fist

Black Panther

White Tiger

Prowler

Looter

Kasper Cole (White Tiger)

Black Cat

Shocker

Iron Patriot

Ghost

Citizen V

Sunpyre

Sun Fire

Silver Samurai

Lionheart

Union Jack

Guardsman

Ronin

Crimson Dynamo

Shadow Cat

Death Tiger

White Wolf

Once their beginning list was complete, they set to work. After all, they wanted eight more characters to assist them, and that was left to their discretion by Jackson.


	3. Chapter 3

Jackson was sitting at his desk, thinking over his motives as to why he wanted a superhero team. He wanted to help protect New York, which was true in and of it self.

"What are my real motives though?" he pondered in his apartment. Since he lived alone, his thoughts couldn't be bounced off of others. He soon realized that his motives were going to clash with those on the team, as to why they wanted to take his idea and run with it.

"I'll never figure out why I have motives to form a team to clean up New York when we have the Avengers?" he said aloud.

Since it had been a couple of hours since he closed down the Bugle to his workers to allow Scarlet Spyder and American Panther to formulate a team, Jackson decided to get an early night's sleep.

However, his mind refused to sleep and ideas kept racing around inside of it. It took him two hours to fall asleep.

Maybe the answer would come to him while he slept. After all, having three degrees (Bachelors in Philosophy, Journalism, and psychology) meant he could let the answer come to him, and he could reason it out with himself.

To him, he thought of superheroes as humans, just with added abilities. It was his ego's way of keeping him real. As he slept, his mind kept going back to the problems that the X-Men vs. Avengers had and what they missed.

It was then that he sat up and grabbed a note pad. Something had struck him as a reason for creating his team. It was an ulterior motive, that he wanted to have a team to not only clean up New York, but to hold on to the court's motto: The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Meanwhile, back at the Bugle building, American Panther and Scarlet Spyder were preparing for several interviews with: Daredevil, Taskmaster, White Dragon, Fyrewolf, Snow Widow, Ghost Spider, Winter Recluse, Fyrestryker, Woodland Protector, Iron Patriot, Man Wolf, White Tiger, Prowler, Guardsman, Sunfire, Sunpyre, Silver Samurai, Union Jack, Black Panther, White Wolf, Lionheart, Mach VII, Black Cat, Wolverine, Venom, Black Knight, Confessor, Red Guardian, Bengal, Scarlet Witch, Iron Fist, Wraith, Black Widow, Beetle, Looter, Kasper Cole (White Tiger), Shocker, Ghost,

Citizen V, Ronin, Crimson Dynamo, Death Tiger, and Shadow Cat

"Don't you think that we have a lot of characters to interview?" she asked.

"Well, we're going to narrow it down after the interview to thirteen," he replied. "After we have the general team, we can consider the others for backup members of the team."

"What does that mean?" she asked.

"Think about it this way," he explained. "If one of us is out of commission, such as being ill or has another job that they can't break away from, then the backup team can be used to take care of the job that needed doing. That way, there is no crime going un-dealt with."

Scarlet Spyder nodded, understanding American Panther's process of logic. They soon finished preparing their offices for the interviews.

"So how do we go about interviewing the possible candidates?" Scarlet Spyder asked.

"You and I are going to each take one person into our office, ask them questions and write down things we like about the interviewee. After we have completed the interviews, then we have them wait and confer on the ones that we saw promise in. Once we have our list match and confirmed, we call in the ones on the list and give them an additional interview, and once we have confirmed our suspicions about the characters," American Panther said.

Scarlet Spyder made mental notes about that and went to her office and got her desk ready. Half an hour later, she was greeted by a full waiting room of superheroes and former super villains.

'_Geez_," she thought, the called out for Fyrewolf.

A figure stood up and advanced towards Scarlet Spyder. When the figure got close to Scarlet Spyder, she made notes of the costume.

The figure wore a wolf style helmet, revealing red eyes and mouth. On the top of the helmet were Wolf style ears. Long, dark maroon colored hair flowed from under the helmet. The figure wore an orangish-red suit, with boots and gloves, all wolf styled. On her back were two katanas, crossed for easy access. Something was missing however and Scarlet Spyder intended to figure it out.

"This way, please," Scarlet Spyder said, leading Fyrewolf into the office.

Once the door was shut and both were seated, Scarlet Spyder got her notepad ready and asked her if she had any other powers that were worth mentioning.

"Well, I do have a mutant power, Pyrokinesis," Fyrewolf said.

Scarlet Spyder made that note as well as many other notes from questions. When Scarlet Spyder finished questioning Fyrewolf, she took the applicant out and asked for Taskmaster. The routine was repeated until both American Panther and Scarlet Spyder had finished. When the last applicant was seated, American Panther went to Scarlet Spyder's office.

"So, who struck you as a well rounded fighter?" American Panther asked.

"Fyrewolf, for a start," Scarlet Spyder returned. "A Pyrokinetic swords master, fluent in several languages: German, Welsh, French, Spanish, Russian, as well as English and Latin. She also has skills as a detective, able to report a several hour long conversation with as many as fifteen people."

American Panther nodded. He then said that he noted that there were six that caught his notice: White Dragon, Snow Widow, Ghost Spider, Winter Recluse, Fyrestryker and Woodland Protector.

"Quite a list," Scarlet Spyder said.

"Was there anyone else who struck you as particularly well trained fighter?" American Panther asked.

Scarlet Spyder consulted her notes before looking up at American Panther.

"Daredevil, Sunfire, Sunpyre *his sister*, Silver Samurai *their cousin*, Bengal, and Taskmaster," she said.

American Panther grinned under his mask.

"That makes this team complete," he said. "I'll get them in here for another round of questioning."

Scarlet Spyder agreed and American Panther went to get the superheroes that were listed. Once that was done, the thirteen that were agreed upon were in Scarlet Spyder's office and the rest of the applicants were sent home.

"Tell us why we're here and not out on the streets?" Taskmaster asked.

"Simple," American Panther said, as he entered the office and shut the door. "You've been chosen to work for a superhero team. A superhero team that has it's base of operations here in the Bugle."

"Are you sure that Jameson doesn't want to use us for getting dirt on the freaks of the world," Woodland Protector grunted.

Everyone turned to him.

"It's true," he said. "Jameson has always wanted to get dirt on the mutants."

"Jameson has gone," Scarlet Spyder told him. "We have a new owner of the Bugle, who wants the truth and nothing but the whole truth."

That seemed to strike a cord with what they stood for. Even Taskmaster, who at times became a villain to test the Avengers, had to agree that the new owner had a great sense of Moral honesty.

If things continued to look up, then maybe, just maybe, there might be hope for journalism after all.


	4. Chapter 4

Once everything was finalized and the new team members left to their homes, Scarlet Spyder turned to American Panther.

"Okay," she said. "Jackson said that he wanted _ten _superheroes, yet we have _fifteen_. What are you playing at?"

"Simple," American Panther replied. "He said ten, which is true. However, I have greater ideas for our team, something to compliment the Avengers and to act as a more stable bridge between regular superheroes and mutants. Anyway, lying is natural, but I'll tell him when he asks me for particulars."

Scarlet Spyder shook her head. She couldn't understand why he was lying to his superior.

'_Something must be off about this_,' she thought. '_Maybe I'm missing something here_.'

As she went to her home, something else was bothering her.

"Why can't we have someplace where we all stay and have it act as our second base of operations?" she muttered. With no-one around, she couldn't really bounce her ideas off of someone else.

"Well, let's leave it till the morning," she muttered again.

When she arrived home, she wrote her ideas down on a piece of paper and stuck it in her costume's notes pouch. She'd bring it up with American Panther in the morning. A quick trip to the bathroom saw a change.

In Scarlet Spyder's place was a woman, no older than 25; blond hair, green eyes, tan skin and a couple of scars on her face, from an accident.

"I always feel like we're playing chess, and the superheroes are the chess pieces," she muttered as she climbed into bed.

Sleep came quickly for her and soon, she was counting sheep. As she dreamt, her mind kept going back to the relationship she had formed with American Panther and all of it's benefits: Kids, a stable job, food on the table, the list goes on.

"That's definitely pleasing," she muttered sleepily before her mind left that for rainbows, ponies and other pleasing items.

"Bzzzzzt! Bzzzzzt! Bzzzzzt! Bzzzzzt!"

She turned over and read the alarm.

"6:45 am," she muttered. "Time to get ready for the day."

She was soon up, in the bathroom and dressed quickly.

"Time for the Scarlet Spyder to meet the new Buglers," she said.

Making her way out of her home and to the Daily Bugle building. When she arrived, to greet her was a figure she had only seen briefly.

The figure stood taller than her, wore a leather jacket, that dropped down to the knees and loose fitting leather pants. The figure looked to be more like a humanized Red Fox instead of a werewolf. The figure's right eye was blood red and the left eye was sea green. On the figure's chest was three blood red claw marks in front of a circle with two blood red scythe marks crossed in front. The fox had a snout that seemed longer than normal foxes.

"Who might you be?" Scarlet Spyder asked.

"Woodland Protector," came the reply.

Scarlet Spyder noticed a deep, yet firm male voice from Woodland Protector.

"I take it you're a no nonsense type of furry?" she asked.

"One correction, Advanced Lycanthrope Mythos Assassin, but you'd be correct. I am a no nonsense fox," he returned, looking down, and smiling.

"I also take it you have a sense of humor?" she asked.

"Only when the occasion calls for sarcastic wit or a sharp tongue," he replied.

"Oh," she said.

The two continued on in silence, until they reached the main office, where the others were waiting.

"Morning," American Panther greeted, shaking hands once everyone was in and the door was shut. "Welcome to our humble HQ."

"Nothing humble about it," muttered Fyrewolf.

American Panther ignored her and continued his "Welcome to the team" spiel.

"As you know, you were chosen for your abilities and/or your sense of duty and even your sense of truth. As you know, the Daily Bugle's leader has wanted to create a superhero team, but he said he had an alternative motive, which is to stick to the truth. However, I told him that he didn't need an ulterior motive. We understand the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. For most of us superheroes, that is our motivation to become a superhero, or for the super villains, their motivation is to get as much money and please their bosses who are as corrupted as you could imagine. There is no way to be 100% honest, as it's in the human nature to lie and even steal or cheat, but we have overcome those obstacles and have learned from them. That is what makes us even more powerful than the enemy, is that we know all their little trade secrets."

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. American Panther continued.

"I had dreams of forming a team for the reasons that Jackson, the new owner of the Bugle, wanted," he continued. "We should give it our all to show the world what we can do."

The others nodded. Fyrewolf looked at the others. Something that had been missed by American Panther: Are they working with the Avengers or the Fantastic four or even S.H.I.E.L.D.?

As she let the questions race around in her head; she listened to American Panther talk about new members, enemies, allies, character specific tasks and so on down the proverbial seventy five thousand page Superhero guidelines, rules and regulations.

When he stopped for a breath, Fyrewolf asked her question.

"That," American Panther replied, "is to be dealt with at the proper time."

No more was said on the topic. However the question still lingered, but they had other things to worry about.


End file.
